Dynamic page previewer for a web application builder

ABSTRACT

Disclosed are examples of systems, apparatus, methods and computer program products for providing a dynamic page previewer for a web application builder. A database system maintains a multi-tenant non-relational database associated with a number of users, web applications, and web application components. The system displays a user interface for a dynamic page previewer, consisting of a preview page for a web application containing a number of web application components and one or more component toggle buttons corresponding to the components. The system then processes a user request to select a component toggle button. One or more component visibility rules associated with the component are determined, as well as a visibility state for the component. The visibility state is modified in relation to the component visibility rules, and the system presents the preview page of the web application in the user interface with the web application component being visible or not visible based on the modified visibility state.

COPYRIGHT NOTICE

A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains materialwhich is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has noobjection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent documentor the patent disclosure as it appears in the United States Patent andTrademark Office patent file or records but otherwise reserves allcopyright rights whatsoever.

TECHNICAL FIELD

This patent document generally relates to non-relational databasesystems, and more specifically to providing a dynamic page previewer fora web application builder.

BACKGROUND

“Cloud computing” services provide shared resources, applications, andinformation to computers and other devices upon request. In cloudcomputing environments, services can be provided by one or more serversaccessible over the Internet rather than installing software locally onin-house computer systems. As such, users having a variety of roles caninteract with cloud computing services.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The included drawings are for illustrative purposes and serve only toprovide examples of possible structures and operations for the disclosedinventive systems, apparatus, methods and computer program products forproviding a dynamic page previewer for a web application builder. Thesedrawings in no way limit any changes in form and detail that may be madeby one skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope ofthe disclosed implementations.

FIG. 1 shows a system diagram of an example of a system 100 forproviding a dynamic page previewer for a web application builder, inaccordance with some implementations.

FIG. 2 shows a flowchart of an example of a method 200 for providing adynamic page previewer for a web application builder, performed inaccordance with some implementations

FIG. 3 shows an example of a web application builder, in accordance withsome implementations.

FIG. 4 shows an example of a dynamic page previewer for a webapplication builder, in accordance with some implementations.

FIG. 5 shows an example of a dynamic page previewer for a webapplication with filter logic employed, in accordance with someimplementations.

FIG. 6 shows a flowchart of an example of a method 600 for providingfilter logic for a dynamic page previewer, performed in accordance withsome implementations.

FIG. 7A shows a block diagram of an example of an environment 10 inwhich an on-demand database service can be used in accordance with someimplementations.

FIG. 7B shows a block diagram of an example of some implementations ofelements of FIG. 7A and various possible interconnections between theseelements.

FIG. 8A shows a system diagram of an example of architectural componentsof an on-demand database service environment 900, in accordance withsome implementations.

FIG. 8B shows a system diagram further illustrating an example ofarchitectural components of an on-demand database service environment,in accordance with some implementations.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Examples of systems, apparatus, methods and computer program productsaccording to the disclosed implementations are described in thissection. These examples are being provided solely to add context and aidin the understanding of the disclosed implementations. It will thus beapparent to one skilled in the art that implementations may be practicedwithout some or all of these specific details. In other instances,certain operations have not been described in detail to avoidunnecessarily obscuring implementations. Other applications arepossible, such that the following examples should not be taken asdefinitive or limiting either in scope or setting.

In the following detailed description, references are made to theaccompanying drawings, which form a part of the description and in whichare shown, by way of illustration, specific implementations. Althoughthese implementations are described in sufficient detail to enable oneskilled in the art to practice the disclosed implementations, it isunderstood that these examples are not limiting, such that otherimplementations may be used and changes may be made without departingfrom their spirit and scope. For example, the operations of methodsshown and described herein are not necessarily performed in the orderindicated. It should also be understood that the methods may includemore or fewer operations than are indicated. In some implementations,operations described herein as separate operations may be combined.Conversely, what may be described herein as a single operation may beimplemented in multiple operations.

Some implementations of the disclosed systems, apparatus, methods andcomputer program products are configured for providing a dynamic pagepreviewer for a web application builder.

Web database environments that allow web applications to be presented tousers directly within a browser or other web viewing experience are verypopular for several reasons. They allow sophisticated web applications,connected to databases such as multi-tenant databases populated withmany millions of records, to be deployed and presented to users on theirdevices effortlessly, without requiring any download or installation ofthe application locally. As such web application environments andframeworks gained in popularity, it became increasingly desirable fordevelopers and companies to be able to create their own custom webapplications and pages in such environments and frameworks. In someinstances, “application builders” became available, allowing developersand non-developers (or “admins”) to create such applications and pagesusing a set of reusable building blocks. For example, a developer may beable to drag-and-drop page components such as a chat window or a clockwidget onto a development area, with the application builderconstructing a custom web application according to those specifications,with working chat window or clock widget as the developer requested.

While such application builders may provide a flexible set of reusableblocks for many application purposes, web applications using thesecomponents can quickly become complicated and sophisticated. Differentusers viewing these finished applications may see different componentsbased on their permission to access components, their stated userpreferences, conditions of whether a campaign has become large enough,or many other possibilities. Managing such applications with differentusers and conditions in mind can be hard for a developer to visualizeand conceptualize.

By way of illustration, Acme is a company that uses a databaseenvironment called PureBuilder for designing sophisticated webexperiences for its marketing campaigns. PureBuilder has a servicecalled Application Builder that allows Acme to create applications, andAcme has done so to create a web front for its products using somesimple building blocks provided in the Application Builder. However,Acme has standard customers and premium customers, and has designedtheir web front so that each type of customer sees completely differentproducts and tools for searching those products. Unfortunately, Acmesees no easy way to preview the application so that the developers canquickly ascertain what a standard customer would see or a premiumcustomer would see in a given page.

Some of the disclosed techniques can be implemented to provide a dynamicpage previewer for a web application builder. In some implementations,the system maintains a multi-tenant database associated with a number ofusers, web applications, and web components. The system displays a userinterface for the dynamic page previewer, consisting of a preview pageof a web application that was built using a web application builder. Thepreview page shows web application components used in the webapplication, and component toggle buttons corresponding to thecomponents. The system processes a user request to select a componenttoggle button, then determines visibility rules for the web applicationcomponent that is selected for toggling. The system determines avisibility state for the component, then modifies the visibility statesbased on the component visibility rules. The preview page is thenpresented in the user interface, with the web application being visibleor not visible according to the modified visibility state.

Some of the disclosed techniques can be implemented to provide filterlogic for a dynamic page previewer. In some implementations, the dynamicpage previewer is displayed in a user interface with web applicationcomponents and component toggle buttons. A user request is processed toselect a subset of the component toggle buttons, and componentvisibility rules are determined for the subset of component togglebuttons. The system determines a filter logic associated with the togglebuttons, and a visibility state for the component associated with thetoggle buttons. The system then modifies the visibility state based onthe one or more component visibility rules and the filter logic.Finally, the system presents the preview page in the user interface,with the component being visible or not visible based on the modifiedvisibility state.

Applying some implementations of the disclosed techniques, analternative scenario to that described above is provided. In thisalternative scenario, Acme is able to see a dynamic preview page for theweb front they have built with the Application Builder. The preview pageinitially shows all components for both standard and premium customers,but pre-configured toggle buttons allow Acme to determine rules for whenpremium components are displayed and when they're not. For example, atoggle button is marked “user status equals Premium”. By selecting thistoggle button, the web application shows components as if a user with astatus of Premium is viewing the web application. Therefore, thecomponents marked Premium are viewable, while some standard componentsare not viewable. In addition, other toggle switches with a moresophisticated filter logic are available, and these allow components tobe viewable or not viewable based on rules such as Button1 AND (Button2OR Button3). This allows Acme to set up many scenarios for how pages arepotentially viewable quite easily.

In some but not all implementations, the disclosed methods, apparatus,systems, and computer-readable storage media may be configured ordesigned for use in a multi-tenant database environment or system.

The term “multi-tenant database system” can refer to those systems inwhich various elements of hardware and software of a database system maybe shared by one or more customers. For example, a given applicationserver may simultaneously process requests for a great number ofcustomers, and a given database table may store rows of data such asfeed items for a potentially much greater number of customers. The term“query plan” generally refers to one or more operations used to accessinformation in a database system.

FIG. 1 shows a system diagram of an example of a system 100 forproviding a dynamic page previewer for a web application builder, inaccordance with some implementations. System 100 includes a variety ofdifferent hardware and/or software components which are in communicationwith each other. In the non-limiting example of FIG. 1, system 100includes at least one enterprise server 104, at least one client system108, at least one multi-tenant database 112, and at least one componentdatabase 116.

Multi-tenant database 112 can allow for storage and retrieval of largesets of data. The multi-tenant database 112 can be a databaseimplemented in HBase or other non-relational database management system.This database can include one or more records for each of a plurality ofenterprises (also referred to as organizations, or tenants.) In someimplementations, the database can include one or more shared tables, inwhich multiple enterprises have records in the same table, and sharemany of the same standard objects and columns for their records. In someimplementations, each enterprise is associated with a tenant_id thatprovides unique identification for that particular enterprise in themulti-tenant database 112. For example, the entity Acme may have atenant_id of “123” which uniquely identifies Acme as associated with arecord or object. No other tenant within a shared table may have thesame tenant_id. In some implementations, multi-tenant database 112 maystore preview data for dynamic page previews of web applications.

Component database 116 is a database that stores a plurality of webcomponents. In some implementations, the components are for use in webapplications, web application builders, and/or web application builderframeworks. In some implementations, component database 116 may storeone or more web application components, web application buildercomponents, or both. In some implementations, component database 116stores one or more pieces of metadata relating to the web components. Insome implementations, component database 116 stores a metadata model forone or more of the web components. In some implementations, the metadatamodel is in tree structure, with the nodes of the tree consisting ofattributes or properties of the web components.

Enterprise server 104 may communicate with other components of system100. This communication may be facilitated through a combination ofnetworks and interfaces. Enterprise server 104 may handle and processdata requests from the client system 108. Likewise, enterprise server104 may return a response to client system 108 after a data request hasbeen processed. For example, enterprise server 104 may retrieve datafrom one or more databases, such as the multi-tenant database 112 or thecomponent database 116. It may combine some or all of the data fromdifferent databases, and send the processed data to client system 108.

Client system 108 may be a computing device capable of communicating viaone or more data networks with a server. Examples of client system 108include a desktop computer or portable electronic device such as asmartphone, a tablet, a laptop, a wearable device such as Google Glass®,another optical head-mounted display (OHMD) device, a smart watch, etc.Client system 108 includes at least one browser in which applicationsmay be deployed.

FIG. 2 shows a flowchart of an example of a method 200 for providing adynamic page previewer for a web application builder, performed inaccordance with some implementations. Method 200 and other methodsdescribed herein may be implemented using system 100 of FIG. 1, althoughthe implementations of such methods are not limited to system 100.

At block 210, system 100 maintains a multi-tenant database 112identifying web application components. In some implementations, themulti-tenant database 112 is shared by multiple enterprises. In someimplementations, the multiple enterprises are each users of the system100 and may be able to store and process data in the form of records.The records may be part of a shared table of the multi-tenant database112. In some implementations, the web application components areconfigured to be reusable within a web application builder, and arefurther configured to construct web applications within the webapplication builder. In some implementations, one or more pieces ofmetadata may be stored in the multi-tenant database 112 in relation tothe web application components. In some implementations, a metadatamodel may be stored for one or more of the web application components.

At block 220, system 100 displays a user interface for a dynamic pagepreviewer for a server-hosted web application builder. In someimplementations, the user interface includes a selectable list of asubset of the web application components. In some implementations, theuser interface includes one or more “development areas”. Developmentareas represent a working area for the developers or admins constructinga web application. In some implementations, a development area allowsfor the placement of page or web application design elements, includingthe placement of web application components. In some implementations,the selectable list of web application components may be a palette. Apalette shows all of the available web application components in apalette, toolbar, list, or other form of displaying the components.

In some implementations, the user interface includes or takes the formof a “preview page” of the web application. In some implementations, apreview page is a web page that constitutes a portion or interface ofthe web application. In some implementations, the preview page includesa number of web application components that are laid out on the pageaccording to some arrangement. The preview page is intended to be apreview of work that a developer or administrator of the web applicationhas done using the web application builder. In some implementations, thepreview page includes one or more component toggle buttons thatcorrespond to the number of web application components. In someimplementations, component toggle buttons are user interface elementsthat have an on state and off state, or activated and inactivated state,that a user can toggle between. For example, a checkbox user interfaceelement could be a component toggle button. In some implementations, thecomponent toggle button is labeled or marked in some way, such as todenote a component name, a rule, a user, or other label associated withthe component toggle button's functionality.

At block 230, system 100 processes a user request to select a componenttoggle button. In some implementations, the user request constitutes auser input that interacts with the component toggle button in some way.In some implementations, the user request constitutes a user input thatswitches a component toggle button from an activated to an inactivatedstate, or from an inactivated state to an activated state. For example,if the component toggle button is a checkbox, then a user may click onthe checkbox to place a check or remove a check, thus toggling thecomponent toggle button's on or off state. In some implementations, theuser request is a user input within the user interface consisting of oneor more clicks, touches, or selection gestures directed at the componenttoggle button.

At block 240, system 100 determines one or more component visibilityrules associated with the web application component corresponding to theselected component toggle button. In some implementations, componentvisibility rules for a given web application component or for a givencomponent toggle button may be retrieved from the multi-tenant database112 or component database 116. In some implementations, componentvisibility rules may specify conditions for whether an associated webapplication component should be visible on a page of the web applicationor not. In some implementations, a developer or administrator of the webapplication can create or prepare component visibility rules to beassociated with web application components. Examples of componentvisibility rules may include “NextStep NE Done”, designating that thevariable NextStep's state must not equal to Done for the associatedcomponent to be visible; “ExpectedRevenue GT 100000”, designating thatthe variable ExpectedRevenue must be greater than 100,000 for theassociated component to be visible; and any rule that might be imaginedconstituting a condition for component visibility.

In some implementations, one or more component visibility rules mayinvolve determining that one or more users have permission to access theweb application component. For example, a user without permission toview a specific component would not see the component, while a user withpermission to view the specific component would. The component would bevisible or not visible in the dynamic page previewer accordingly. Insome implementations, one or more component visibility rules relate toone or more pieces of data from a user profile, user preferencessection, or other user information associated with the user. In someimplementations, one or more component visibility rules relate to one ormore values of records in a database, such as multi-tenant database 112or component database 116. In some implementations, the rules related towhether one or more records are equal to or above one or more designatedthreshold values. For example, “ExpectedRevenue GT 100000” would checkif the ExpectedRevenue record is greater than the threshold value of100,000.

At block 250, system 100 determines a visibility state for the webapplication component. In some implementations, the visibility state ismetadata associated with the web application component. For example, thevisibility state may take the form of a variable with an on or offstate, such as Component.IsVisible=‘true’ or ‘false’. In someimplementations, the visibility state depends on whether the componenttoggle button associated with the web application component is activatedor inactivated. In some implementations, system 100 performs a check todetermine whether the component visibility rule associated with thecomponent toggle button is satisfied or the conditions are met.

At block 260, system 100 modifies the visibility state in relation tothe component visibility rules. In some implementations, a visual markerof the component toggle button switching its state is shown. Forexample, an unmarked check box may be represented as a marked check box,signifying that the user in question has marked the check box. In someimplementations, system 100 determines whether the component visibilityrules would lead to the visibility state being changed based on the userrequest changing the component toggle button's state, where thecomponent toggle button is tied to the component visibility rules forthe web application component. In some implementations, system 100switches the visibility state from inactivated to activated, or viceversa. For example, if a variable Component.IsVisible=‘false’, thensystem 100 modifies the visibility state such thatComponent.IsVisible=‘true’. In some implementations, a number ofcomponent visibility rules may function together to determine that thevisibility state should be altered.

At block 270, system 100 presents the preview page with the webapplication component being visible or not visible based on the modifiedvisibility state. If the visibility state has been modified to beinactivated, then system 100 removes the web application component frombeing visible on the preview page. If the visibility state has beenmodified to be activated, then system 100 adds the visible webapplication component to the preview page. In some implementations, thepreview page is presented in real time, or substantially real time,after processing the first user request.

FIG. 3 shows an example of a web application builder, in accordance withsome implementations. Example screenshot 300 shows a web applicationbuilder with a palette 310, canvas 320, and properties 330. In someimplementations, the web application builder is presented to a user as auser interface that can be interacted with to construct webapplications.

The palette 310 is a selectable list of one or more web applicationcomponents that can be used and reused to construct web applications.For example, one of the web application components is “Rich Text”, whichplaces a rich text field within the web application. Another componentis “Chatter”, which places a social media component within the webapplication that can function such that the user can post to a socialmedia service and perform other functions. In some implementations, theweb application components can be presented as, or alongside, graphicalrepresentations indicating an object type or component type of the webapplication component. In some implementations, the web applicationcomponents may be standard components, provided by default to users, orcustom components that were created by or specifically for the user ofthe web application builder for use in building web applications.

The canvas 320 is an area where a user of the web application buildercan design and lay out web applications or pages in a visual way. Insome implementations, the user can drag one or more selectablecomponents from the palette 310 into the canvas 320 to place them on thecanvas. In some implementations, indications appear in areas of thecanvas 320 where components may be placed.

The properties 330 is an area of the web application builder where usersmay view and modify one or more properties or attributes of a webapplication component or an object, either in the canvas 320, palette310, or some other area of the web application builder. In someimplementations, fields such as “Label”, “Developer Name”, “Page Type”,and more may designate the corresponding property or attribute, and oneor more text fields of drop-down boxes may allow a user to modifyattributes or properties. Various interactive elements, includingbuttons, may also appear to allow the user to view and/or modifyproperties of various aspects of web application components and objects.

FIG. 4 shows an example of a dynamic page previewer for a webapplication builder, in accordance with some implementations. Thedynamic page previewer consists of a page or series of pages presentedto the user of the web application builder, along the user to preview aweb application in progress. Web application components 410, 420, 430,440, and 450 appear within a preview page of the dynamic page previewer.Component 410 relates to an “Einstein” artificial intelligencecomponent. A message notes that the permissions of the user areinsufficient for displaying the component. Component 420 is a Chattercomponent for polls, questions, and posts in a social media service.Component 430 is a component for a social media service related tomarketing campaigns and records. Component 440 shows an opportunity andrelated data for a marketing campaign. Component 450 shows the progressof an opportunity.

Component toggle buttons 460, 470, 475, 480, and 490 are toggle buttonsin the form of checkboxes that are associated with components 410, 420,430, 440, and 4450. Each component toggle button has a label designatingthat a component visibility rule is associated with the component togglebutton. Button 460 is associated with the Einstein component 410, and isassociated with a component visibility rule, wherein the Einsteincomponent 410 is visible if the web application's user has “OpportunityIQ” enabled. Button 470 is associated with the Chatter component 420,and is associated with a rule where the component is visible only if theuser can view Chatter pages. The component toggle buttons 475 areassociated with visibility for a rich text component when either avariable called NextStep equals ‘Done’ or does not equal ‘Done’.

Component toggle buttons 480 work in tandem with a filter logic marked“1 OR 2”. When the component visibility rule associated with the firstor second button is satisfied, the rich text component associated withthem is visible. In this screenshot, the buttons are both activated,meaning both component visibility rules are simulated to be satisfied inthe dynamic page previewer, so the component is visible. If either oneor the other button is activated, the component would still be visible.The component is not visible only if both are not activated. Componenttoggle buttons 490 work in tandem with a filter logic marked “1 AND (2OR 3)”. The filter logic of the first, second, and third buttons operateaccording to this filter logic to determine whether the associatedcomponent is visible. Here, all three buttons are activated, so thecomponent is visible. If the first button was not activated, but thesecond and third were activated, then the component would not bevisible.

FIG. 5 shows an example of a dynamic page previewer for a webapplication with filter logic employed, in accordance with someimplementations. The example is the same as in FIG. 4, but with somedifferent component toggle buttons activated. Component toggle buttons530 are both activated. They correspond to the Einstein component 410and the Chatter component 420, which are both visible because thecomponent visibility rules are simulated to be satisfied in the dynamicpage previewer. Component toggle buttons 540 have filter logic “1 OR 2”,meaning if either button is activated, then the component is visible.Here, neither button is activated, so the component is not visible.Component toggle buttons 550 have filter logic “1 AND (2 OR 3)”. Sincethe first button is not activated, the component is not visible. Whencomparing to FIG. 4, component 450 is no longer visible.

FIG. 6 shows a flowchart of an example of a method 600 for providingfilter logic for a dynamic page previewer, performed in accordance withsome implementations. Method 600 and other methods described herein maybe implemented using system 100 of FIG. 1, although the implementationsof such methods are not limited to system 100.

At block 610, system 100 maintains a multi-tenant database 112identifying web application components. In some implementations, themulti-tenant database 112 is shared by multiple enterprises. In someimplementations, the multiple enterprises are each users of the system100 and may be able to store and process data in the form of records.The records may be part of a shared table of the multi-tenant database112. In some implementations, the web application components areconfigured to be reusable within a web application builder, and arefurther configured to construct web applications within the webapplication builder. In some implementations, one or more pieces ofmetadata may be stored in the multi-tenant database 112 in relation tothe web application components. In some implementations, a metadatamodel may be stored for one or more of the web application components.

At block 620, system 100 displays a user interface for a dynamic pagepreviewer for a server-hosted web application builder. In someimplementations, the user interface includes a selectable list of asubset of the web application components. In some implementations, theuser interface includes one or more “development areas”. Developmentareas represent a working area for the developers or admins constructinga web application. In some implementations, a development area allowsfor the placement of page or web application design elements, includingthe placement of web application components. In some implementations,the selectable list of web application components may be a palette. Apalette shows all of the available web application components in apalette, toolbar, list, or other form of displaying the components.

In some implementations, the user interface includes or takes the formof a “preview page” of the web application. In some implementations, apreview page is a web page that constitutes a portion or interface ofthe web application. In some implementations, the preview page includesa number of web application components that are laid out on the pageaccording to some arrangement. The preview page is intended to be apreview of work that a developer or administrator of the web applicationhas done using the web application builder. In some implementations, thepreview page includes one or more component toggle buttons thatcorrespond to the number of web application components. In someimplementations, component toggle buttons are user interface elementsthat have an on state and off state, or activated and inactivated state,that a user can toggle between. For example, a checkbox user interfaceelement could be a component toggle button. In some implementations, thecomponent toggle button is labeled or marked in some way, such as todenote a component name, a rule, a user, or other label associated withthe component toggle button's functionality.

At block 630, system 100 processes a user request to select a subset ofthe component toggle buttons. In some implementations, the user requestconstitutes a user input that interacts with the subset of componenttoggle buttons in some way. In some implementations, the user requestconstitutes a user input that switches one or more component togglebuttons from an activated to an inactivated state, or from aninactivated state to an activated state. For example, if the componenttoggle button is a checkbox, then a user may click on the checkbox toplace a check or remove a check, thus toggling the component togglebutton's on or off state. In some implementations, the user request is auser input within the user interface consisting of one or more clicks,touches, or selection gestures directed at the component toggle button.

At block 640, system 100 determines one or more component visibilityrules associated with the subset of component toggle buttons. In someimplementations, component visibility rules for a given component togglebutton may be retrieved from the multi-tenant database 112 or componentdatabase 116. In some implementations, component visibility rules mayspecify conditions for whether an associated web application componentshould be visible on a page of the web application or not. In someimplementations, a developer or administrator of the web application cancreate or prepare component visibility rules to be associated with webapplication components. Examples of component visibility rules mayinclude “NextStep NE Done”, designating that the variable NextStep'sstate must not equal to Done for the associated component to be visible;“ExpectedRevenue GT 100000”, designating that the variableExpectedRevenue must be greater than 100,000 for the associatedcomponent to be visible; and any rule that might be imaginedconstituting a condition for component visibility.

In some implementations, one or more component visibility rules mayinvolve determining that one or more users have permission to access theweb application component. For example, a user without permission toview a specific component would not see the component, while a user withpermission to view the specific component would. The component would bevisible or not visible in the dynamic page previewer accordingly. Insome implementations, one or more component visibility rules relate toone or more pieces of data from a user profile, user preferencessection, or other user information associated with the user. In someimplementations, one or more component visibility rules relate to one ormore values of records in a database, such as multi-tenant database 112or component database 116. In some implementations, the rules related towhether one or more records are equal to or above one or more designatedthreshold values. For example, “ExpectedRevenue GT 100000” would checkif the ExpectedRevenue record is greater than the threshold value of100,000.

At block 650, system 100 determines a filter logic associated with thesubset of component toggle buttons. In some implementations, a filterlogic relates to two or more component toggle buttons and the associatedweb application component for those component toggle buttons. The filterlogic can include a logical statement involving one or more AND or ORconditions for the subset of component toggle buttons, such as “1 OR 2”,or “1 AND (2 OR 3)”. The number relates to the component toggle buttonsand their activation states. If the first component toggle button isactivated, for example, then the state is “1”. If both the first andsecond component toggle buttons are activated, then the state is “1 AND2”, and so on. In some implementations, system 100 retrieves the filterlogic from multi-tenant database 112 or the component database 116. Insome implementations, the filter logic involves at least one nested ANDor OR condition for the subset of component toggle buttons.

At block 660, system 100 determines a visibility state for the webapplication component. In some implementations, the visibility state ismetadata associated with the web application component. For example, thevisibility state may take the form of a variable with an on or offstate, such as Component.IsVisible=‘true’ or ‘false’. In someimplementations, the visibility state depends on whether the componenttoggle button associated with the web application component is activatedor inactivated. In some implementations, system 100 performs a check todetermine whether the component visibility rule associated with thecomponent toggle button is satisfied or the conditions are met.

At block 670, system 100 modifies the visibility state in relation tothe component visibility rules and the filter logic. In someimplementations, modifying the visibility state involves at leastsatisfying one or more conditions of the filter logic with respect tothe subset of component toggle buttons. In some implementations, avisual marker of the component toggle button or buttons switching theirstates are shown. For example, an unmarked check box may be representedas a marked check box, signifying that the user in question has markedthe check box. In some implementations, system 100 determines whetherthe component visibility rules and the filter logic would lead to thevisibility state being changed based on the user request changing thecomponent toggle button's state, where the component toggle button istied to the component visibility rules and the filter logic for the webapplication component. In some implementations, system 100 switches thevisibility state from inactivated to activated, or vice versa. Forexample, if a variable Component.IsVisible=‘false’, then system 100modifies the visibility state such that Component.IsVisible=‘true’. Insome implementations, a number of component visibility rules mayfunction together to determine that the visibility state should bealtered, based on the chain of logic set up in the filter logic.

At block 680, system 100 presents the preview page with the webapplication component being visible or not visible based on the modifiedvisibility state. If the visibility state has been modified to beinactivated, then system 100 removes the web application component frombeing visible on the preview page. If the visibility state has beenmodified to be activated, then system 100 adds the visible webapplication component to the preview page. In some implementations, thepreview page is presented in real time, or substantially real time,after processing the first user request.

Systems, apparatus, and methods are described below for implementingdatabase systems and enterprise level social and business informationnetworking systems in conjunction with the disclosed techniques. Suchimplementations can provide more efficient use of a database system. Forinstance, a user of a database system may not easily know when importantinformation in the database has changed, e.g., about a project orclient. Such implementations can provide feed tracked updates about suchchanges and other events, thereby keeping users informed.

By way of example, a user can update a record in the form of a CRMrecord, e.g., an opportunity such as a possible sale of 1000 computers.Once the record update has been made, a feed tracked update about therecord update can then automatically be provided, e.g., in a feed, toanyone subscribing to the opportunity or to the user. Thus, the userdoes not need to contact a manager regarding the change in theopportunity, since the feed tracked update about the update is sent viaa feed to the manager's feed page or other page.

FIG. 7A shows a block diagram of an example of an environment 10 inwhich an on-demand database service exists and can be used in accordancewith some implementations. Environment 10 may include user systems 12,network 14, database system 16, processor system 17, applicationplatform 18, network interface 20, tenant data storage 22, system datastorage 24, program code 26, and process space 28. In otherimplementations, environment 10 may not have all of these componentsand/or may have other components instead of, or in addition to, thoselisted above.

A user system 12 may be implemented as any computing device(s) or otherdata processing apparatus such as a machine or system used by a user toaccess a database system 16. For example, any of user systems 12 can bea handheld and/or portable computing device such as a mobile phone, asmartphone, a laptop computer, or a tablet. Other examples of a usersystem include computing devices such as a work station and/or a networkof computing devices. As illustrated in FIG. 7A (and in more detail inFIG. 7B) user systems 12 might interact via a network 14 with anon-demand database service, which is implemented in the example of FIG.7A as database system 16.

An on-demand database service, implemented using system 16 by way ofexample, is a service that is made available to users who do not need tonecessarily be concerned with building and/or maintaining the databasesystem. Instead, the database system may be available for their use whenthe users need the database system, i.e., on the demand of the users.Some on-demand database services may store information from one or moretenants into tables of a common database image to form a multi-tenantdatabase system (MTS). A database image may include one or more databaseobjects. A relational database management system (RDBMS) or theequivalent may execute storage and retrieval of information against thedatabase object(s). A non-relational database management system (NRDBMS)or the equivalent may execute storage and fast retrieval of large setsof information against the database object(s). Application platform 18may be a framework that allows the applications of system 16 to run,such as the hardware and/or software, e.g., the operating system. Insome implementations, application platform 18 enables creation, managingand executing one or more applications developed by the provider of theon-demand database service, users accessing the on-demand databaseservice via user systems 12, or third party application developersaccessing the on-demand database service via user systems 12.

The users of user systems 12 may differ in their respective capacities,and the capacity of a particular user system 12 might be entirelydetermined by permissions (permission levels) for the current user. Forexample, when a salesperson is using a particular user system 12 tointeract with system 16, the user system has the capacities allotted tothat salesperson. However, while an administrator is using that usersystem to interact with system 16, that user system has the capacitiesallotted to that administrator. In systems with a hierarchical rolemodel, users at one permission level may have access to applications,data, and database information accessible by a lower permission leveluser, but may not have access to certain applications, databaseinformation, and data accessible by a user at a higher permission level.Thus, different users will have different capabilities with regard toaccessing and modifying application and database information, dependingon a user's security or permission level, also called authorization.

Network 14 is any network or combination of networks of devices thatcommunicate with one another. For example, network 14 can be any one orany combination of a LAN (local area network), WAN (wide area network),telephone network, wireless network, point-to-point network, starnetwork, token ring network, hub network, or other appropriateconfiguration. Network 14 can include a TCP/IP (Transfer ControlProtocol and Internet Protocol) network, such as the global internetworkof networks often referred to as the Internet. The Internet will be usedin many of the examples herein. However, it should be understood thatthe networks that the present implementations might use are not solimited.

User systems 12 might communicate with system 16 using TCP/IP and, at ahigher network level, use other common Internet protocols tocommunicate, such as HTTP, FTP, AFS, WAP, etc. In an example where HTTPis used, user system 12 might include an HTTP client commonly referredto as a “browser” for sending and receiving HTTP signals to and from anHTTP server at system 16. Such an HTTP server might be implemented asthe sole network interface 20 between system 16 and network 14, butother techniques might be used as well or instead. In someimplementations, the network interface 20 between system 16 and network14 includes load sharing functionality, such as round-robin HTTP requestdistributors to balance loads and distribute incoming HTTP requestsevenly over a plurality of servers. At least for users accessing system16, each of the plurality of servers has access to the MTS' data;however, other alternative configurations may be used instead.

In one implementation, system 16, shown in FIG. 7A, implements aweb-based CRM system. For example, in one implementation, system 16includes application servers configured to implement and execute CRMsoftware applications as well as provide related data, code, forms, webpages and other information to and from user systems 12 and to store to,and retrieve from, a database system related data, objects, and Webpagecontent. With a multi-tenant system, data for multiple tenants may bestored in the same physical database object in tenant data storage 22,however, tenant data typically is arranged in the storage medium(s) oftenant data storage 22 so that data of one tenant is kept logicallyseparate from that of other tenants so that one tenant does not haveaccess to another tenant's data, unless such data is expressly shared.In certain implementations, system 16 implements applications otherthan, or in addition to, a CRM application. For example, system 16 mayprovide tenant access to multiple hosted (standard and custom)applications, including a CRM application. User (or third partydeveloper) applications, which may or may not include CRM, may besupported by the application platform 18, which manages creation,storage of the applications into one or more database objects andexecuting of the applications in a virtual machine in the process spaceof the system 16.

One arrangement for elements of system 16 is shown in FIGS. 7A and 7B,including a network interface 20, application platform 18, tenant datastorage 22 for tenant data 23, system data storage 24 for system data 25accessible to system 16 and possibly multiple tenants, program code 26for implementing various functions of system 16, and a process space 28for executing MTS system processes and tenant-specific processes, suchas running applications as part of an application hosting service.Additional processes that may execute on system 16 include databaseindexing processes.

Several elements in the system shown in FIG. 7A include conventional,well-known elements that are explained only briefly here. For example,each user system 12 could include a desktop personal computer,workstation, laptop, PDA, cell phone, or any wireless access protocol(WAP) enabled device or any other computing device capable ofinterfacing directly or indirectly to the Internet or other networkconnection. The term “computing device” is also referred to hereinsimply as a “computer”. User system 12 typically runs an HTTP client,e.g., a browsing program, such as Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser,Netscape's Navigator browser, Opera's browser, or a WAP-enabled browserin the case of a cell phone, PDA or other wireless device, or the like,allowing a user (e.g., subscriber of the multi-tenant database system)of user system 12 to access, process and view information, pages andapplications available to it from system 16 over network 14. Each usersystem 12 also typically includes one or more user input devices, suchas a keyboard, a mouse, trackball, touch pad, touch screen, pen or thelike, for interacting with a GUI provided by the browser on a display(e.g., a monitor screen, LCD display, OLED display, etc.) of thecomputing device in conjunction with pages, forms, applications andother information provided by system 16 or other systems or servers.Thus, “display device” as used herein can refer to a display of acomputer system such as a monitor or touch-screen display, and can referto any computing device having display capabilities such as a desktopcomputer, laptop, tablet, smartphone, a television set-top box, orwearable device such Google Glass® or other human body-mounted displayapparatus. For example, the display device can be used to access dataand applications hosted by system 16, and to perform searches on storeddata, and otherwise allow a user to interact with various GUI pages thatmay be presented to a user. As discussed above, implementations aresuitable for use with the Internet, although other networks can be usedinstead of or in addition to the Internet, such as an intranet, anextranet, a virtual private network (VPN), a non-TCP/IP based network,any LAN or WAN or the like.

According to one implementation, each user system 12 and all of itscomponents are operator configurable using applications, such as abrowser, including computer code run using a central processing unitsuch as an Intel Pentium® processor or the like. Similarly, system 16(and additional instances of an MTS, where more than one is present) andall of its components might be operator configurable usingapplication(s) including computer code to run using processor system 17,which may be implemented to include a central processing unit, which mayinclude an Intel Pentium® processor or the like, and/or multipleprocessor units. Non-transitory computer-readable media can haveinstructions stored thereon/in, that can be executed by or used toprogram a computing device to perform any of the methods of theimplementations described herein. Computer program code 26 implementinginstructions for operating and configuring system 16 to intercommunicateand to process web pages, applications and other data and media contentas described herein is preferably downloadable and stored on a harddisk, but the entire program code, or portions thereof, may also bestored in any other volatile or non-volatile memory medium or device asis well known, such as a ROM or RAM, or provided on any media capable ofstoring program code, such as any type of rotating media includingfloppy disks, optical discs, digital versatile disk (DVD), compact disk(CD), microdrive, and magneto-optical disks, and magnetic or opticalcards, nanosystems (including molecular memory ICs), or any other typeof computer-readable medium or device suitable for storing instructionsand/or data. Additionally, the entire program code, or portions thereof,may be transmitted and downloaded from a software source over atransmission medium, e.g., over the Internet, or from another server, asis well known, or transmitted over any other conventional networkconnection as is well known (e.g., extranet, VPN, LAN, etc.) using anycommunication medium and protocols (e.g., TCP/IP, HTTP, HTTPS, Ethernet,etc.) as are well known. It will also be appreciated that computer codefor the disclosed implementations can be realized in any programminglanguage that can be executed on a client system and/or server or serversystem such as, for example, C, C++, HTML, any other markup language,Java™, JavaScript, ActiveX, any other scripting language, such asVBScript, and many other programming languages as are well known may beused. (Java™ is a trademark of Sun Microsystems, Inc.).

According to some implementations, each system 16 is configured toprovide web pages, forms, applications, data and media content to user(client) systems 12 to support the access by user systems 12 as tenantsof system 16. As such, system 16 provides security mechanisms to keepeach tenant's data separate unless the data is shared. If more than oneMTS is used, they may be located in close proximity to one another(e.g., in a server farm located in a single building or campus), or theymay be distributed at locations remote from one another (e.g., one ormore servers located in city A and one or more servers located in cityB). As used herein, each MTS could include one or more logically and/orphysically connected servers distributed locally or across one or moregeographic locations. Additionally, the term “server” is meant to referto one type of computing device such as a system including processinghardware and process space(s), an associated storage medium such as amemory device or database, and, in some instances, a databaseapplication (e.g., OODBMS or RDBMS) as is well known in the art. Itshould also be understood that “server system” and “server” are oftenused interchangeably herein. Similarly, the database objects describedherein can be implemented as single databases, a distributed database, acollection of distributed databases, a database with redundant online oroffline backups or other redundancies, etc., and might include adistributed database or storage network and associated processingintelligence.

FIG. 7B shows a block diagram of an example of some implementations ofelements of FIG. 7A and various possible interconnections between theseelements. That is, FIG. 7B also illustrates environment 10. However, inFIG. 7B elements of system 16 and various interconnections in someimplementations are further illustrated. FIG. 7B shows that user system12 may include processor system 8A, memory system 8B, input system 12C,and output system 12D. FIG. 7B shows network 14 and system 16. FIG. 7Balso shows that system 16 may include tenant data storage 22, tenantdata 23, system data storage 24, system data 25, User Interface (UI) 30,Application Program Interface (API) 32, PL/SOQL 34, save routines 36,application setup mechanism 38, application servers 50 ₁-50 _(N), systemprocess space 52, tenant process spaces 54, tenant management processspace 60, tenant storage space 62, user storage 64, and applicationmetadata 66. In other implementations, environment 10 may not have thesame elements as those listed above and/or may have other elementsinstead of, or in addition to, those listed above.

User system 12, network 14, system 16, tenant data storage 22, andsystem data storage 24 were discussed above in FIG. 7A. Regarding usersystem 12, processor system 8A may be any combination of one or moreprocessors. Memory system 8B may be any combination of one or morememory devices, short term, and/or long term memory. Input system 12Cmay be any combination of input devices, such as one or more keyboards,mice, trackballs, scanners, cameras, and/or interfaces to networks.Output system 12D may be any combination of output devices, such as oneor more monitors, printers, and/or interfaces to networks. As shown byFIG. 7B, system 16 may include a network interface 20 (of FIG. 7A)implemented as a set of application servers 50, an application platform18, tenant data storage 22, and system data storage 24. Also shown issystem process space 52, including individual tenant process spaces 54and a tenant management process space 60. Each application server 50 maybe configured to communicate with tenant data storage 22 and the tenantdata 23 therein, and system data storage 24 and the system data 25therein to serve requests of user systems 12. The tenant data 23 mightbe divided into individual tenant storage spaces 62, which can be eithera physical arrangement and/or a logical arrangement of data. Within eachtenant storage space 62, user storage 64 and application metadata 66might be similarly allocated for each user. For example, a copy of auser's most recently used (MRU) items might be stored to user storage64. Similarly, a copy of MRU items for an entire organization that is atenant might be stored to tenant storage space 62. A UI 30 provides auser interface and an API 32 provides an application programmerinterface to system 16 resident processes to users and/or developers atuser systems 12. The tenant data and the system data may be stored invarious databases, such as one or more Oracle® databases.

Application platform 18 includes an application setup mechanism 38 thatsupports application developers' creation and management ofapplications, which may be saved as metadata into tenant data storage 22by save routines 36 for execution by subscribers as one or more tenantprocess spaces 54 managed by tenant management process 60 for example.Invocations to such applications may be coded using PL/SOQL 34 thatprovides a programming language style interface extension to API 32. Adetailed description of some PL/SOQL language implementations isdiscussed in commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 7,730,478, titled METHODAND SYSTEM FOR ALLOWING ACCESS TO DEVELOPED APPLICATIONS VIA AMULTI-TENANT ON-DEMAND DATABASE SERVICE, by Craig Weissman, issued onJun. 1, 2010, and hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety andfor all purposes. Invocations to applications may be detected by one ormore system processes, which manage retrieving application metadata 66for the subscriber making the invocation and executing the metadata asan application in a virtual machine.

Each application server 50 may be communicably coupled to databasesystems, e.g., having access to system data 25 and tenant data 23, via adifferent network connection. For example, one application server 50 ₁might be coupled via the network 14 (e.g., the Internet), anotherapplication server 50 _(N-1) might be coupled via a direct network link,and another application server 50 _(N) might be coupled by yet adifferent network connection. Transfer Control Protocol and InternetProtocol (TCP/IP) are typical protocols for communicating betweenapplication servers 50 and the database system. However, it will beapparent to one skilled in the art that other transport protocols may beused to optimize the system depending on the network interconnect used.

In certain implementations, each application server 50 is configured tohandle requests for any user associated with any organization that is atenant. Because it is desirable to be able to add and remove applicationservers from the server pool at any time for any reason, there ispreferably no server affinity for a user and/or organization to aspecific application server 50. In one implementation, therefore, aninterface system implementing a load balancing function (e.g., an F5Big-IP load balancer) is communicably coupled between the applicationservers 50 and the user systems 12 to distribute requests to theapplication servers 50. In one implementation, the load balancer uses aleast connections algorithm to route user requests to the applicationservers 50. Other examples of load balancing algorithms, such as roundrobin and observed response time, also can be used. For example, incertain implementations, three consecutive requests from the same usercould hit three different application servers 50, and three requestsfrom different users could hit the same application server 50. In thismanner, by way of example, system 16 is multi-tenant, wherein system 16handles storage of, and access to, different objects, data andapplications across disparate users and organizations.

As an example of storage, one tenant might be a company that employs asales force where each salesperson uses system 16 to manage their salesprocess. Thus, a user might maintain contact data, leads data, customerfollow-up data, performance data, goals and progress data, etc., allapplicable to that user's personal sales process (e.g., in tenant datastorage 22). In an example of a MTS arrangement, since all of the dataand the applications to access, view, modify, report, transmit,calculate, etc., can be maintained and accessed by a user system havingnothing more than network access, the user can manage his or her salesefforts and cycles from any of many different user systems. For example,if a salesperson is visiting a customer and the customer has Internetaccess in their lobby, the salesperson can obtain critical updates as tothat customer while waiting for the customer to arrive in the lobby.

While each user's data might be separate from other users' dataregardless of the employers of each user, some data might beorganization-wide data shared or accessible by a plurality of users orall of the users for a given organization that is a tenant. Thus, theremight be some data structures managed by system 16 that are allocated atthe tenant level while other data structures might be managed at theuser level. Because an MTS might support multiple tenants includingpossible competitors, the MTS should have security protocols that keepdata, applications, and application use separate. Also, because manytenants may opt for access to an MTS rather than maintain their ownsystem, redundancy, up-time, and backup are additional functions thatmay be implemented in the MTS. In addition to user-specific data andtenant-specific data, system 16 might also maintain system level datausable by multiple tenants or other data. Such system level data mightinclude industry reports, news, postings, and the like that are sharableamong tenants.

In certain implementations, user systems 12 (which may be clientsystems) communicate with application servers 50 to request and updatesystem-level and tenant-level data from system 16 that may involvesending one or more queries to tenant data storage 22 and/or system datastorage 24. System 16 (e.g., an application server 50 in system 16)automatically generates one or more SQL statements (e.g., one or moreSQL queries) that are designed to access the desired information. Systemdata storage 24 may generate query plans to access the requested datafrom the database.

Each database can generally be viewed as a collection of objects, suchas a set of logical tables, containing data fitted into predefinedcategories. A “table” is one representation of a data object, and may beused herein to simplify the conceptual description of objects and customobjects according to some implementations. It should be understood that“table” and “object” may be used interchangeably herein. Each tablegenerally contains one or more data categories logically arranged ascolumns or fields in a viewable schema. Each row or record of a tablecontains an instance of data for each category defined by the fields.For example, a CRM database may include a table that describes acustomer with fields for basic contact information such as name,address, phone number, fax number, etc. Another table might describe apurchase order, including fields for information such as customer,product, sale price, date, etc. In some multi-tenant database systems,standard entity tables might be provided for use by all tenants. For CRMdatabase applications, such standard entities might include tables forcase, account, contact, lead, and opportunity data objects, eachcontaining pre-defined fields. It should be understood that the word“entity” may also be used interchangeably herein with “object” and“table”.

In some multi-tenant database systems, tenants may be allowed to createand store custom objects, or they may be allowed to customize standardentities or objects, for example by creating custom fields for standardobjects, including custom index fields. Commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No.7,779,039, titled CUSTOM ENTITIES AND FIELDS IN A MULTI-TENANT DATABASESYSTEM, by Weissman et al., issued on Aug. 17, 2010, and herebyincorporated by reference in its entirety and for all purposes, teachessystems and methods for creating custom objects as well as customizingstandard objects in a multi-tenant database system. In certainimplementations, for example, all custom entity data rows are stored ina single multi-tenant physical table, which may contain multiple logicaltables per organization. It is transparent to customers that theirmultiple “tables” are in fact stored in one large table or that theirdata may be stored in the same table as the data of other customers.

FIG. 8A shows a system diagram of an example of architectural componentsof an on-demand database service environment 900, in accordance withsome implementations. A client machine located in the cloud 904,generally referring to one or more networks in combination, as describedherein, may communicate with the on-demand database service environmentvia one or more edge routers 908 and 912. A client machine can be any ofthe examples of user systems 12 described above. The edge routers maycommunicate with one or more core switches 920 and 924 via firewall 916.The core switches may communicate with a load balancer 928, which maydistribute server load over different pods, such as the pods 940 and944. The pods 940 and 944, which may each include one or more serversand/or other computing resources, may perform data processing and otheroperations used to provide on-demand services. Communication with thepods may be conducted via pod switches 932 and 936. Components of theon-demand database service environment may communicate with a databasestorage 956 via a database firewall 948 and a database switch 952.

As shown in FIGS. 8A and 8B, accessing an on-demand database serviceenvironment may involve communications transmitted among a variety ofdifferent hardware and/or software components. Further, the on-demanddatabase service environment 900 is a simplified representation of anactual on-demand database service environment. For example, while onlyone or two devices of each type are shown in FIGS. 8A and 8B, someimplementations of an on-demand database service environment may includeanywhere from one to many devices of each type. Also, the on-demanddatabase service environment need not include each device shown in FIGS.8A and 8B, or may include additional devices not shown in FIGS. 8A and8B.

Moreover, one or more of the devices in the on-demand database serviceenvironment 900 may be implemented on the same physical device or ondifferent hardware. Some devices may be implemented using hardware or acombination of hardware and software. Thus, terms such as “dataprocessing apparatus,” “machine,” “server” and “device” as used hereinare not limited to a single hardware device, but rather include anyhardware and software configured to provide the described functionality.

The cloud 904 is intended to refer to a data network or combination ofdata networks, often including the Internet. Client machines located inthe cloud 904 may communicate with the on-demand database serviceenvironment to access services provided by the on-demand databaseservice environment. For example, client machines may access theon-demand database service environment to retrieve, store, edit, and/orprocess information.

In some implementations, the edge routers 908 and 912 route packetsbetween the cloud 904 and other components of the on-demand databaseservice environment 900. The edge routers 908 and 912 may employ theBorder Gateway Protocol (BGP). The BGP is the core routing protocol ofthe Internet. The edge routers 908 and 912 may maintain a table of IPnetworks or ‘prefixes’, which designate network reachability amongautonomous systems on the Internet.

In one or more implementations, the firewall 916 may protect the innercomponents of the on-demand database service environment 900 fromInternet traffic. The firewall 916 may block, permit, or deny access tothe inner components of the on-demand database service environment 900based upon a set of rules and other criteria. The firewall 916 may actas one or more of a packet filter, an application gateway, a statefulfilter, a proxy server, or any other type of firewall.

In some implementations, the core switches 920 and 924 are high-capacityswitches that transfer packets within the on-demand database serviceenvironment 900. The core switches 920 and 924 may be configured asnetwork bridges that quickly route data between different componentswithin the on-demand database service environment. In someimplementations, the use of two or more core switches 920 and 924 mayprovide redundancy and/or reduced latency.

In some implementations, the pods 940 and 944 may perform the core dataprocessing and service functions provided by the on-demand databaseservice environment. Each pod may include various types of hardwareand/or software computing resources. An example of the pod architectureis discussed in greater detail with reference to FIG. 8B.

In some implementations, communication between the pods 940 and 944 maybe conducted via the pod switches 932 and 936. The pod switches 932 and936 may facilitate communication between the pods 940 and 944 and clientmachines located in the cloud 904, for example via core switches 920 and924. Also, the pod switches 932 and 936 may facilitate communicationbetween the pods 940 and 944 and the database storage 956.

In some implementations, the load balancer 928 may distribute workloadbetween the pods 940 and 944. Balancing the on-demand service requestsbetween the pods may assist in improving the use of resources,increasing throughput, reducing response times, and/or reducingoverhead. The load balancer 928 may include multilayer switches toanalyze and forward traffic.

In some implementations, access to the database storage 956 may beguarded by a database firewall 948. The database firewall 948 may act asa computer application firewall operating at the database applicationlayer of a protocol stack. The database firewall 948 may protect thedatabase storage 956 from application attacks such as structure querylanguage (SQL) injection, database rootkits, and unauthorizedinformation disclosure.

In some implementations, the database firewall 948 may include a hostusing one or more forms of reverse proxy services to proxy trafficbefore passing it to a gateway router. The database firewall 948 mayinspect the contents of database traffic and block certain content ordatabase requests. The database firewall 948 may work on the SQLapplication level atop the TCP/IP stack, managing applications'connection to the database or SQL management interfaces as well asintercepting and enforcing packets traveling to or from a databasenetwork or application interface.

In some implementations, communication with the database storage 956 maybe conducted via the database switch 952. The multi-tenant databasestorage 956 may include more than one hardware and/or softwarecomponents for handling database queries. Accordingly, the databaseswitch 952 may direct database queries transmitted by other componentsof the on-demand database service environment (e.g., the pods 940 and944) to the correct components within the database storage 956.

In some implementations, the database storage 956 is an on-demanddatabase system shared by many different organizations. The on-demanddatabase service may employ a multi-tenant approach, a virtualizedapproach, or any other type of database approach. On-demand databaseservices are discussed in greater detail with reference to FIGS. 8A and8B.

FIG. 8B shows a system diagram further illustrating an example ofarchitectural components of an on-demand database service environment,in accordance with some implementations. The pod 944 may be used torender services to a user of the on-demand database service environment900. In some implementations, each pod may include a variety of serversand/or other systems. The pod 944 includes one or more content batchservers 964, content search servers 968, query servers 982, file servers986, access control system (ACS) servers 980, batch servers 984, and appservers 988. Also, the pod 944 includes database instances 990, quickfile systems (QFS) 992, and indexers 994. In one or moreimplementations, some or all communication between the servers in thepod 944 may be transmitted via the switch 936.

The content batch servers 964 may handle requests internal to the pod.These requests may be long-running and/or not tied to a particularcustomer. For example, the content batch servers 964 may handle requestsrelated to log mining, cleanup work, and maintenance tasks.

The content search servers 968 may provide query and indexer functions.For example, the functions provided by the content search servers 968may allow users to search through content stored in the on-demanddatabase service environment.

The file servers 986 may manage requests for information stored in thefile storage 998. The file storage 998 may store information such asdocuments, images, and basic large objects (BLOBs). By managing requestsfor information using the file servers 986, the image footprint on thedatabase may be reduced.

The query servers 982 may be used to retrieve information from one ormore file systems. For example, the query system 982 may receiverequests for information from the app servers 988 and then transmitinformation queries to the NFS 996 located outside the pod.

The pod 944 may share a database instance 990 configured as amulti-tenant environment in which different organizations share accessto the same database. Additionally, services rendered by the pod 944 maycall upon various hardware and/or software resources. In someimplementations, the ACS servers 980 may control access to data,hardware resources, or software resources.

In some implementations, the batch servers 984 may process batch jobs,which are used to run tasks at specified times. Thus, the batch servers984 may transmit instructions to other servers, such as the app servers988, to trigger the batch jobs.

In some implementations, the QFS 992 may be an open source file systemavailable from Sun Microsystems® of Santa Clara, Calif. The QFS mayserve as a rapid-access file system for storing and accessinginformation available within the pod 944. The QFS 992 may support somevolume management capabilities, allowing many disks to be groupedtogether into a file system. File system metadata can be kept on aseparate set of disks, which may be useful for streaming applicationswhere long disk seeks cannot be tolerated. Thus, the QFS system maycommunicate with one or more content search servers 968 and/or indexers994 to identify, retrieve, move, and/or update data stored in thenetwork file systems 996 and/or other storage systems.

In some implementations, one or more query servers 982 may communicatewith the NFS 996 to retrieve and/or update information stored outside ofthe pod 944. The NFS 996 may allow servers located in the pod 944 toaccess information to access files over a network in a manner similar tohow local storage is accessed.

In some implementations, queries from the query servers 922 may betransmitted to the NFS 996 via the load balancer 928, which maydistribute resource requests over various resources available in theon-demand database service environment. The NFS 996 may also communicatewith the QFS 992 to update the information stored on the NFS 996 and/orto provide information to the QFS 992 for use by servers located withinthe pod 944.

In some implementations, the pod may include one or more databaseinstances 990. The database instance 990 may transmit information to theQFS 992. When information is transmitted to the QFS, it may be availablefor use by servers within the pod 944 without using an additionaldatabase call.

In some implementations, database information may be transmitted to theindexer 994. Indexer 994 may provide an index of information availablein the database 990 and/or QFS 992. The index information may beprovided to file servers 986 and/or the QFS 992.

Some but not all of the techniques described or referenced herein areimplemented as part of or in conjunction with a social networkingdatabase system, also referred to herein as a social networking systemor as a social network. Social networking systems have become a popularway to facilitate communication among people, any of whom can berecognized as users of a social networking system. One example of asocial networking system is Chatter®, provided by salesforce.com, inc.of San Francisco, Calif. salesforce.com, inc. is a provider of socialnetworking services, CRM services and other database managementservices, any of which can be accessed and used in conjunction with thetechniques disclosed herein in some implementations. These variousservices can be provided in a cloud computing environment, for example,in the context of a multi-tenant database system. Thus, the disclosedtechniques can be implemented without having to install softwarelocally, that is, on computing devices of users interacting withservices available through the cloud. While the disclosedimplementations are often described with reference to Chatter®, thoseskilled in the art should understand that the disclosed techniques areneither limited to Chatter® nor to any other services and systemsprovided by salesforce.com, inc. and can be implemented in the contextof various other database systems and/or social networking systems suchas Facebook®, LinkedIn®, Twitter®, Google+®, Yammer® and Jive® by way ofexample only.

Some social networking systems can be implemented in various settings,including organizations. For instance, a social networking system can beimplemented to connect users within an enterprise such as a company orbusiness partnership, or a group of users within such an organization.For instance, Chatter® can be used by employee users in a division of abusiness organization to share data, communicate, and collaborate witheach other for various social purposes often involving the business ofthe organization. In the example of a multi-tenant database system, eachorganization or group within the organization can be a respective tenantof the system, as described in greater detail herein.

In some social networking systems, users can access one or more socialnetwork feeds, which include information updates presented as items orentries in the feed. Such a feed item can include a single informationupdate or a collection of individual information updates. A feed itemcan include various types of data including character-based data, audiodata, image data and/or video data. A social network feed can bedisplayed in a graphical user interface (GUI) on a display device suchas the display of a computing device as described herein. Theinformation updates can include various social network data from varioussources and can be stored in an on-demand database service environment.In some implementations, the disclosed methods, apparatus, systems, andcomputer-readable storage media may be configured or designed for use ina multi-tenant database environment.

In some implementations, a social networking system may allow a user tofollow data objects in the form of CRM records such as cases, accounts,or opportunities, in addition to following individual users and groupsof users. The “following” of a record stored in a database, as describedin greater detail herein, allows a user to track the progress of thatrecord when the user is subscribed to the record. Updates to the record,also referred to herein as changes to the record, are one type ofinformation update that can occur and be noted on a social network feedsuch as a record feed or a news feed of a user subscribed to the record.Examples of record updates include field changes in the record, updatesto the status of a record, as well as the creation of the record itself.Some records are publicly accessible, such that any user can follow therecord, while other records are private, for which appropriate securityclearance/permissions are a prerequisite to a user following the record.

Information updates can include various types of updates, which may ormay not be linked with a particular record. For example, informationupdates can be social media messages submitted by a user or canotherwise be generated in response to user actions or in response toevents. Examples of social media messages include: posts, comments,indications of a user's personal preferences such as “likes” and“dislikes”, updates to a user's status, uploaded files, anduser-submitted hyperlinks to social network data or other network datasuch as various documents and/or web pages on the Internet. Posts caninclude alpha-numeric or other character-based user inputs such aswords, phrases, statements, questions, emotional expressions, and/orsymbols. Comments generally refer to responses to posts or to otherinformation updates, such as words, phrases, statements, answers,questions, and reactionary emotional expressions and/or symbols.Multimedia data can be included in, linked with, or attached to a postor comment. For example, a post can include textual statements incombination with a JPEG image or animated image. A like or dislike canbe submitted in response to a particular post or comment. Examples ofuploaded files include presentations, documents, multimedia files, andthe like.

Users can follow a record by subscribing to the record, as mentionedabove. Users can also follow other entities such as other types of dataobjects, other users, and groups of users. Feed tracked updatesregarding such entities are one type of information update that can bereceived and included in the user's news feed. Any number of users canfollow a particular entity and thus view information updates pertainingto that entity on the users' respective news feeds. In some socialnetworks, users may follow each other by establishing connections witheach other, sometimes referred to as “friending” one another. Byestablishing such a connection, one user may be able to see informationgenerated by, generated about, or otherwise associated with anotheruser. For instance, a first user may be able to see information postedby a second user to the second user's personal social network page. Oneimplementation of such a personal social network page is a user'sprofile page, for example, in the form of a web page representing theuser's profile. In one example, when the first user is following thesecond user, the first user's news feed can receive a post from thesecond user submitted to the second user's profile feed. A user'sprofile feed is also referred to herein as the user's “wall,” which isone example of a social network feed displayed on the user's profilepage.

In some implementations, a social network feed may be specific to agroup of users of a social networking system. For instance, a group ofusers may publish a news feed. Members of the group may view and post tothis group feed in accordance with a permissions configuration for thefeed and the group. Information updates in a group context can alsoinclude changes to group status information.

In some implementations, when data such as posts or comments input fromone or more users are submitted to a social network feed for aparticular user, group, object, or other construct within a socialnetworking system, an email notification or other type of networkcommunication may be transmitted to all users following the user, group,or object in addition to the inclusion of the data as a feed item in oneor more feeds, such as a user's profile feed, a news feed, or a recordfeed. In some social networking systems, the occurrence of such anotification is limited to the first instance of a published input,which may form part of a larger conversation. For instance, anotification may be transmitted for an initial post, but not forcomments on the post. In some other implementations, a separatenotification is transmitted for each such information update.

The term “multi-tenant database system” generally refers to thosesystems in which various elements of hardware and/or software of adatabase system may be shared by one or more customers. For example, agiven application server may simultaneously process requests for a greatnumber of customers, and a given database table may store rows of datasuch as feed items for a potentially much greater number of customers.

An example of a “user profile” or “user's profile” is a database objector set of objects configured to store and maintain data about a givenuser of a social networking system and/or database system. The data caninclude general information, such as name, title, phone number, a photo,a biographical summary, and a status, e.g., text describing what theuser is currently doing. As mentioned herein, the data can includesocial media messages created by other users. Where there are multipletenants, a user is typically associated with a particular tenant. Forexample, a user could be a salesperson of a company, which is a tenantof the database system that provides a database service.

The term “record” generally refers to a data entity having fields withvalues and stored in database system. An example of a record is aninstance of a data object created by a user of the database service, forexample, in the form of a CRM record about a particular (actual orpotential) business relationship or project. The record can have a datastructure defined by the database service (a standard object) or definedby a user (custom object). For example, a record can be for a businesspartner or potential business partner (e.g., a client, vendor,distributor, etc.) of the user, and can include information describingan entire company, subsidiaries, or contacts at the company. As anotherexample, a record can be a project that the user is working on, such asan opportunity (e.g., a possible sale) with an existing partner, or aproject that the user is trying to get. In one implementation of amulti-tenant database system, each record for the tenants has a uniqueidentifier stored in a common table. A record has data fields that aredefined by the structure of the object (e.g., fields of certain datatypes and purposes). A record can also have custom fields defined by auser. A field can be another record or include links thereto, therebyproviding a parent-child relationship between the records.

The terms “social network feed” and “feed” are used interchangeablyherein and generally refer to a combination (e.g., a list) of feed itemsor entries with various types of information and data. Such feed itemscan be stored and maintained in one or more database tables, e.g., asrows in the table(s), that can be accessed to retrieve relevantinformation to be presented as part of a displayed feed. The term “feeditem” (or feed element) generally refers to an item of information,which can be presented in the feed such as a post submitted by a user.Feed items of information about a user can be presented in a user'sprofile feed of the database, while feed items of information about arecord can be presented in a record feed in the database, by way ofexample. A profile feed and a record feed are examples of differenttypes of social network feeds. A second user following a first user anda record can receive the feed items associated with the first user andthe record for display in the second user's news feed, which is anothertype of social network feed. In some implementations, the feed itemsfrom any number of followed users and records can be combined into asingle social network feed of a particular user.

As examples, a feed item can be a social media message, such as auser-generated post of text data, and a feed tracked update to a recordor profile, such as a change to a field of the record. Feed trackedupdates are described in greater detail herein. A feed can be acombination of social media messages and feed tracked updates. Socialmedia messages include text created by a user, and may include otherdata as well. Examples of social media messages include posts, userstatus updates, and comments. Social media messages can be created for auser's profile or for a record. Posts can be created by various users,potentially any user, although some restrictions can be applied. As anexample, posts can be made to a wall section of a user's profile page(which can include a number of recent posts) or a section of a recordthat includes multiple posts. The posts can be organized inchronological order when displayed in a GUI, for instance, on the user'sprofile page, as part of the user's profile feed. In contrast to a post,a user status update changes a status of a user and can be made by thatuser or an administrator. A record can also have a status, the update ofwhich can be provided by an owner of the record or other users havingsuitable write access permissions to the record. The owner can be asingle user, multiple users, or a group.

In some implementations, a comment can be made on any feed item. In someimplementations, comments are organized as a list explicitly tied to aparticular feed tracked update, post, or status update. In someimplementations, comments may not be listed in the first layer (in ahierarchal sense) of feed items, but listed as a second layer branchingfrom a particular first layer feed item.

A “feed tracked update,” also referred to herein as a “feed update,” isone type of information update and generally refers to data representingan event. A feed tracked update can include text generated by thedatabase system in response to the event, to be provided as one or morefeed items for possible inclusion in one or more feeds. In oneimplementation, the data can initially be stored, and then the databasesystem can later use the data to create text for describing the event.Both the data and/or the text can be a feed tracked update, as usedherein. In various implementations, an event can be an update of arecord and/or can be triggered by a specific action by a user. Whichactions trigger an event can be configurable. Which events have feedtracked updates created and which feed updates are sent to which userscan also be configurable. Social media messages and other types of feedupdates can be stored as a field or child object of the record. Forexample, the feed can be stored as a child object of the record.

A “group” is generally a collection of users. In some implementations,the group may be defined as users with a same or similar attribute, orby membership. In some implementations, a “group feed”, also referred toherein as a “group news feed”, includes one or more feed items about anyuser in the group. In some implementations, the group feed also includesinformation updates and other feed items that are about the group as awhole, the group's purpose, the group's description, and group recordsand other objects stored in association with the group. Threads ofinformation updates including group record updates and social mediamessages, such as posts, comments, likes, etc., can define groupconversations and change over time.

An “entity feed” or “record feed” generally refers to a feed of feeditems about a particular record in the database. Such feed items caninclude feed tracked updates about changes to the record and posts madeby users about the record. An entity feed can be composed of any type offeed item. Such a feed can be displayed on a page such as a web pageassociated with the record, e.g., a home page of the record. As usedherein, a “profile feed” or “user's profile feed” generally refers to afeed of feed items about a particular user. In one example, the feeditems for a profile feed include posts and comments that other usersmake about or send to the particular user, and status updates made bythe particular user. Such a profile feed can be displayed on a pageassociated with the particular user. In another example, feed items in aprofile feed could include posts made by the particular user and feedtracked updates initiated based on actions of the particular user.

While some of the disclosed implementations may be described withreference to a system having an application server providing a front endfor an on-demand database service capable of supporting multipletenants, the disclosed implementations are not limited to multi-tenantdatabases nor deployment on application servers. Some implementationsmay be practiced using various database architectures such as ORACLE®,DB2® by IBM and the like without departing from the scope of theimplementations claimed.

It should be understood that some of the disclosed implementations canbe embodied in the form of control logic using hardware and/or computersoftware in a modular or integrated manner. Other ways and/or methodsare possible using hardware and a combination of hardware and software.

Any of the disclosed implementations may be embodied in various types ofhardware, software, firmware, and combinations thereof. For example,some techniques disclosed herein may be implemented, at least in part,by computer-readable media that include program instructions, stateinformation, etc., for performing various services and operationsdescribed herein. Examples of program instructions include both machinecode, such as produced by a compiler, and files containing higher-levelcode that may be executed by a computing device such as a server orother data processing apparatus using an interpreter. Examples ofcomputer-readable media include, but are not limited to: magnetic mediasuch as hard disks, floppy disks, and magnetic tape; optical media suchas flash memory, compact disk (CD) or digital versatile disk (DVD);magneto-optical media; and hardware devices specially configured tostore program instructions, such as read-only memory (“ROM”) devices andrandom access memory (“RAM”) devices. A computer-readable medium may beany combination of such storage devices.

Any of the operations and techniques described in this application maybe implemented as software code to be executed by a processor using anysuitable computer language such as, for example, Java, C++ or Perlusing, for example, object-oriented techniques. The software code may bestored as a series of instructions or commands on a computer-readablemedium. Computer-readable media encoded with the software/program codemay be packaged with a compatible device or provided separately fromother devices (e.g., via Internet download). Any such computer-readablemedium may reside on or within a single computing device or an entirecomputer system, and may be among other computer-readable media within asystem or network. A computer system or computing device may include amonitor, printer, or other suitable display for providing any of theresults mentioned herein to a user.

While various implementations have been described herein, it should beunderstood that they have been presented by way of example only, and notlimitation. Thus, the breadth and scope of the present applicationshould not be limited by any of the implementations described herein,but should be defined only in accordance with the following andlater-submitted claims and their equivalents.

What is claimed is:
 1. A system comprising: a database system forproviding a dynamic page previewer for a server-hosted web applicationbuilder, the database system implemented using a server systemcomprising one or more hardware processors, the database systemconfigurable to cause: accessing a database associated with a pluralityof users, the database storing one or more data objects identifying aplurality of web applications and a plurality of web applicationcomponents, the web application components configured to be reusablewithin the web application builder; providing, for display in a userinterface on a client device, the dynamic page previewer comprising apreview page of one or more web applications of the plurality of webapplications, the preview page of the one or more web applicationscomprising one or more of the web application components and one or morecomponent controls corresponding to the one or more web applicationcomponents; obtaining a user request associated with a user-selected oneof the component controls; determining one or more component visibilityconditions associated with the web application component correspondingto the selected component control, the one or more component visibilityconditions configured to control whether to include associated webapplication components in a page, at least one of the one or morecomponent visibility conditions being based, at least in part, on avalue of a record stored in the database relative to one or moredesignated threshold values; determining a visibility state for the webapplication component; modifying the visibility state in relation to theone or more component visibility conditions and in relation to filterlogic comprising a nested logical statement associated with the selectedcomponent control; and providing, for display in the user interface onthe client device and in response to the user request, the preview pageof the one or more web applications of the plurality of web applicationswith the web application component being included or not included ascontrolled by the modified visibility state.
 2. The system of claim 1,wherein the one or more component visibility conditions comprise atleast determining that one or more users have permission to access theweb application component.
 3. The system of claim 1, wherein modifyingthe visibility state comprises setting the visibility state to notvisible.
 4. The system of claim 1, wherein the user request comprises auser input within the user interface, the user input comprising at leastone of a click, touch, or selection gesture directed at the selectedcomponent control.
 5. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or morecomponent visibility conditions comprise at least one or more pieces ofdata from a user profile or user preferences section associated with auser.
 6. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more componentvisibility conditions comprise the value of the record stored in thedatabase being equal to or above the one or more designated thresholdvalues.
 7. The system of claim 1, wherein providing the preview page inresponse to the user request is performed in substantially real-timeafter processing the first user request.
 8. A method comprising:accessing a database associated with a plurality of users, the databasestoring one or more data objects identifying a plurality of webapplications and a plurality of web application components, the webapplication components configured to be reusable within a webapplication builder; providing, for display in a user interface on aclient device, a dynamic page previewer comprising a preview page of oneor more web applications of the plurality of web applications, thepreview page of the one or more web applications comprising one or moreof the web application components and one or more component controlscorresponding to the one or more web application components; obtaining auser request associated with a user-selected one of the componentcontrols; determining one or more component visibility conditionsassociated with the web application component corresponding to theselected component control, the one or more component visibilityconditions configured to control whether to include associated webapplication components in a page, at least one of the one or morecomponent visibility conditions being based, at least in part, on avalue of a record stored in the database relative to one or moredesignated threshold values; determining a visibility state for the webapplication component; modifying the visibility state in relation to theone or more component visibility conditions and in relation to filterlogic comprising a nested logical statement associated with the selectedcomponent control; and providing, for display in the user interface onthe client device and in response to the user request, the preview pageof the one or more web applications of the plurality of web applicationswith the web application component being included or not included ascontrolled by the modified visibility state.
 9. The method of claim 8,wherein the one or more component visibility conditions comprise atleast determining that one or more users have permission to access theweb application component.
 10. The method of claim 8, wherein modifyingthe visibility state comprises setting the visibility state to notvisible.
 11. The method of claim 8, wherein the user request comprises auser input within the user interface, the user input comprising at leastone of a click, touch, or selection gesture directed at the selectedcomponent control.
 12. The method of claim 8, wherein the one or morecomponent visibility conditions comprise at least one or more pieces ofdata from a user profile or user preferences section associated with auser.
 13. The method of claim 8, wherein the one or more componentvisibility conditions comprise the value of the record stored in thedatabase being equal to or above the one or more designated thresholdvalues.
 14. The method of claim 8, wherein providing the preview page inresponse to the user request is performed in substantially real-timeafter processing the first user request.
 15. A computer program productcomprising computer-readable program code capable of being executed byone or more processors when retrieved from a non-transitorycomputer-readable medium, the program code comprising instructionsconfigurable to cause: accessing a database associated with a pluralityof users, the database storing one or more data objects identifying aplurality of web applications and a plurality of web applicationcomponents, the web application components configured to be reusablewithin a web application builder; providing, for display in a userinterface on a client device, a dynamic page previewer comprising apreview page of one or more web applications of the plurality of webapplications, the preview page of the one or more web applicationscomprising one or more of the web application components and one or morecomponent controls corresponding to the one or more web applicationcomponents; obtaining a user request associated with a user-selected oneof the component controls; determining one or more component visibilityconditions associated with the web application component correspondingto the selected component control, the one or more component visibilityconditions configured to control whether to include associated webapplication components in a page, at least one of the one or morecomponent visibility conditions being based, at least in part, on avalue of a record stored in the database relative to one or moredesignated threshold values; determining a visibility state for the webapplication component; modifying the visibility state in relation to theone or more component visibility conditions and in relation to filterlogic comprising a nested logical statement associated with the selectedcomponent control; and providing, for display in the user interface onthe client device and in response to the user request, the preview pageof the one or more web applications of the plurality of web applicationswith the web application component being included or not included ascontrolled by the modified visibility state.
 16. The computer programproduct of claim 15, wherein the one or more component visibilityconditions comprise at least determining that one or more users havepermission to access the web application component.
 17. The computerprogram product of claim 15, wherein modifying the visibility statecomprises setting the visibility state to not visible.
 18. The computerprogram product of claim 15, wherein the user request comprises a userinput within the user interface, the user input comprising at least oneof a click, touch, or selection gesture directed at the selectedcomponent control.
 19. The computer program product of claim 15, whereinthe one or more component visibility conditions comprise at least one ormore pieces of data from a user profile or user preferences sectionassociated with a user.
 20. The computer program product of claim 15,wherein the one or more component visibility conditions comprise thevalue of the record stored in the database being equal to or above theone or more designated threshold values.